They went thattaway. Not to be confused with gymnasts, the Seattle Pacific University cross country teams will do the splits this weekend, heading in two different directions. Four members of the men's team are ticketed for the regional preview Saturday (Sept. 14) at the Fresno State Invitational while the balance of the runners, both men and women, compete at the Central Washington Invitational. The men will run 8000 meters at Fresno and 4 miles in Ellensburg while the women race over 5k. Next week SPU is scheduled to race at the Sundodger Invitational in West Seattle.

A gang of four. Coach Doris Heritage is sending her top four males south with track & field head coach Jack Hoyt. Nathanael Castle (Sr., Gooding, Id.), coming off possibly the best race of his career, will get a good look at the course which will be lengthened to 10k and used at the NCAA West Regional Nov. 9. Joining Castle are teammates Tim LeCount (Fr., Battle Ground, Wa.), Paul Mach (Jr., Seattle, Wa./King's) and Scott Van Hess (Sr., Salem, Or./McKay). The weather forecast for Fresno this weekend calls for sun and temperatures reaching 97 degrees in the afternoon.

Eastbound to Ellensburg. The women's team will still be without Jamie Witt (Jr., Folsom, Ca.), last year's top scorer, this weekend but there's a chance that Nicole Seana (Jr., Carnation, Wa./Kamiakin) will be ready. Heritage had 10 women participate last weekend at the first meet, the Emerald City Invitational. The men, who had eight in action, will not field a full team of five at either race this weekend.Strong showing. Castle proved to be in excellent shape and fit for a big race at the Emerald City. He went out patiently, then reeled in runner after runner until he took the lead. In the end, Castle was overtaken by Washington's Todd Arnold, the eventual winner, but he still took second and improved upon his time of a year earlier by 43 seconds, in 26:02.4. Furthermore, he was the only non-Husky among the top seven finishers and 1:23 seconds ahead of the next Great Northwest Athletic Conference competitor. Castle was selected as the GNAC male athlete of the week for his effort.

Rest of the story. Overall, both the men and women took sixth in the respective team scoring. LeCount, despite a sideache, finished 23rd for the men in 28:04.7. Mach was next, having improved on his 2001 time by 1:40, taking 35th in 28:47.1 and Van Hess was 39th in 29:05.7. Also scoring was Andrew Kamikawa (So., Mililani, Hi.), a transfer from Chaminade who was 46th in 29:43.8. For the women, Ruth Hawkinson (Sr., Roy, Wa./Yelm) and Sarah Kraybill (Sr., Seattle, Wa./Ballard) were 1-2 on the team and 24th and 29th overall, in 20:04.3 and 20:18.9, respectively. Rounding out the top five were Josie Lavin (So., Bremerton, Wa.), 32nd in 20:27.5; Ruth Harbaugh (Fr., Gig Harbor, Wa./Gig Harbor), 35th in 20:37.2; and Kirsten Bjork (Jr., Olympia, Wa./Black Hills), 45th in 21:01.6.

Trail mix. The only home meet, the Oct. 5 duel with Western Washington at the Casey Conference Center, has been scratched. Instead, Heritage hopes to take her teams either to the Willamette Invitational in Oregon or a meet near Bellingham that weekend...Todd Arnold, the Emerald City winner, is the son of SPU alum Rob Arnold, one of the Falcons' top scorers from 1969-72...The team will train at Casey this week until Thursday, when the men's group departs for Fresno...In addition to host Central Washington, Saint Martin's and Western Washington are also sending teams east Saturday. In Fresno, Castle will likely face some of his primary competition for the GNAC individual title as both Humboldt State and Alaska Anchorage send entries.

Emerald City Invitational results.

Missing links. For the latest and best information on Seattle Pacific University athletics, stay where you're at -- on The Falcons Online. For updated standings and statistics, see the Great Northwest Athletic Conference web site.